~The Da Vinci Code~
The Book:
An exhilaratingly brain-teasing, captivating, exceedingly clever, pulse-pounding, and a well written thriller. It is a wonderful blend of religion, history, myth, maths, art, and suspense, involving numerous puzzles and codes.
The characters and their actions are not real, but the artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals depicted in this novel all exist (for example, Leonardo Da Vinci's paintings, the Louvre pyramid, the Gnostic Gospels, Hieros Gamos, etc.).
This book shows how a masterpiece can be created using codes, puzzles, anagrams, cryptograms, hidden messages, the well known Da Vinci's art, and one of the well known religion's of the world. It also must have been a very difficult task to write the book because of all these exotic ingredients.
It is said that some historians believe that most of the fact is true. We as readers have to read the book, enjoy it as a fiction has to be and then think wisely and choose to belive what we want to. I found the theories pretty convincing though I know that they are not true. Hence it is better to come to our own interpretations towards the end of the book and leave it at that! After all The Da Vinci Code is a novel and a work of fiction.
Jacques Saunière, the renowned curator has the reputation for being reclusive. Despite that, his recognition for dedication to the arts made him an easy man to revere. His books on the secret codes hidden in the paintings of Poussin and Teniers were extremely well known. Jacques Saunière was also considered the premiere goddess iconographer on earth. Saunière had a personal passion for relics relating to fertility, goddess cults, Wicca, and the sacred feminine. During his twenty year tenure as curator, Saunière had also helped the Louvre amass the largest collection of Goddess art on earth-labrys axes from the priestesses' oldest Greek shrine in Delphi, gold caducei wands, hundreds of Tjet ankhs resembling small standing angels, Sistrum rattles used in ancient Egypt to dispel evil spirits, and an astonishing array of statues depicting Horus being nursed by the goddess Isis.
Jacques Saunière is killed in the Louvre Museum, Paris. Before he dies, he had to pass on the secret, an unbroken chain of knowledge to the world. He just did not know how!
Robert Langdon, a symbologist has a wealth of academic knowledge that helps him view the world in a unique way. His books on religious paintings and cult symbology had made him a reluctant celebrity in the art world, and last year Langdon's visibility had increased a hundred-fold after his involvement in a widely publicized incident at the Vatican.
Silas, the hulking albino, is on the hunt for the keystone. According to lore, the brotherhood had created a map of stone-a clef de voûte?or keystone?an engraved tablet that revealed the final resting place of the brotherhood's greatest secret?information so powerful that its protection was the reason for the brotherhood's very existence. Silas killed four people and all four of his victims, moments before death, had desperately tried to buy back their lives by telling their secret. Each had told Silas that the keystone was ingeniously hidden at a precise location inside one of Paris's ancient churches?Eglise de Saint-Sulpice.
Historian Leigh Teabingclaims that the founding fathers of Christianity hijacked the good name of Jesus for political reasons. He also manages to support the historical evidence support his claim. Langdon and Teabing disagree as to whether the Sangreal documents should be released to the world.
The book leaves you with some questions that only you can answer: Does the world have a right to know all aspects of its history, or can an argument be made for keeping certain information secret? Would you rather live in a world without religion?or a world without science? Will you look at the artwork of Da Vinci differently, now that you know more about his secret life?
The author:
Dan Brown can be called one of the best, and most accomplished writers in the world. His revelations on Da Vinci's penchant for hiding codes in his paintings prompts you to search for the renowned artistic works---The Mona Lisa, The Madonna of the Rocks and The Last Supper. After reading The Da Vinci Code, you will never see these famous painting in quite the same way again. There should be something in the book (a fiction) to make you think this way!
Dan Brown has actually done a re-examination of 2,000 years of religious history and taken a chance that would have provoked much debate. But as you read the book, you understand that the author has done extensive research on secret societies and symbology that adds intellectual depth to this thriller.
Reality:
The Priory of Sion, a European secret society founded in 1099 is a real organization. In 1975, parchments known as Les Dossiers Secrets were discovered, identifying numerous members of the Priory of Sion, including Sir Isaac Newton, Botticelli, Victor Hugo, and Leonardo da Vinci.
Opus Dei, the Vatican prelature, is a deeply devout Catholic group that has been the topic of recent controversy due to reports of brain-washing, coercion, and a practice known as corporal mortification. All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are said to be accurate.
The paintings of Leonardo Da Vinci seem to overflow with mystifying symbolism and codes. Art historians agree that Da Vinci's paintings contain hidden levels of meaning that go well beneath the surface of the paint. Many scholars believe Leonardo da Vinci work intentionally provides clues to a powerful secret, a secret that remains protected to this day by a clandestine brotherhood of which Da Vinci was a member.
Debate
The book is a novel though it has footnotes of source materials. But in a controversial introductory note, Brown writes: All descriptions of documents and secret rituals are accurate. Are they? Anyway a few things (of the many), he mentions that are open for debate are:
Mary Magdalene represented the feminine cult and the Holy Grail of traditional lore.
Mary Magdalene was also Jesus' wife and the mother of his children.
Magdalene's womb, was the legendary Holy Grail (as seen in Da Vinci's encoded paining, The Last Supper). It is called so because she carried Jesus offspring.
The truth about Christ and Mary Magdalene has been kept alive by a secret society named the Priory of Sion that was lead by great minds like Da Vinci.
Jesus was not seen as divine (God) by His followers until Emperor Constantine declared him so for his own purposes.
The remains of Mary Magdalene's and the secret documents that tell the real story were found on the Temple Mount when Jerusalem was conquered in the First Crusade.
